The Bike
by madelinesticks
Summary: Steam Powered Giraffe fic. Peter VI buys The Spine a motorcycle. The Spine adores it.


"The Spine! C'mere!" The automaton gave a soft grown, momentarily pressing his forehead to the book in his hands. Peter VI in such an exciteable mood almost never boded well. Reluctantly, he placed the compendium on the side table next to his water, moving out of the room and down the stairs.  
"Come on come on come on!" Peter whined, impatiently stepping from foot to foot.  
"What?" The Spine asked, sounding as put-upon as he could imagine and suppressing any outward show of the curiosity he was feeling. Peter just gave a gleeful laugh and ran out the door, gesturing for the automaton to follow.  
The Spine did, coming out onto the porch with raised eyebrows. "Now what is i-" The Spine stopped short, following the point of Peter's finger. He stared, mouth open and black lips parted.  
He heard Annie give a little giggle against Peter V's shoulder.  
"It's a Yamaha. Mod-"  
"Model RD350LC." The Spine finished. "1980." He looked completely taken apart as he stared at the motorcycle, noting the pistons, the tank, the carefully shaped spokes.  
"It's for you." Six said, and The Spine was fairly certain he was wearing an ear-splitting grin. The Spine bit his lip.  
"But- but it's so expensive, ho-"  
"I have a buddy." Peter said, waving off The Spine's concerns. "Now, c'mon, put on the helmet. Get on the bike!"  
"But-"  
"Spine, c'mon, you've wanted a motorbike since like, the seventies, Dad said. Get on the bike so Mom can take a picture!"  
The Spine stepped forwards, taking the helmet, examining it before putting it on. Peter had painted the Walter Robotics symbol on the back of it, adding silver accents to its sides. The Spine gave a little smile as he looked at it.  
"Hurry up!" Peter whined, ever impatient. The Spine pulled on the helmet, pushing the visor up and looking to Annie so that she could take a photograph. "On the bike, now!" The Spine did, straddling it with nothing short of a bright grin on his face. He was comfortable, and he couldn't help but grin a little.  
"I reinforced the bike, so it's fine on your weight." Peter VI grinned. "Added a few features, made it road safe." The Spine didn't quite trust Peter's version of "safe", usually, but he was fairly certain Peter V supervised him well enough.  
"Start it up!" He yelled excitedly as Annie snapped another picture. The Spine did, quickly flicking the visor down.  
Nothing was better, he thought as he started the ignition and started to move. The roar of the engine was exhilarating, and though no one could see it, his smile was wide and bright.

Rabbit was jealous, at first. The Spine found that kinda funny. He was curled in Pappy's armchair, knees up and arms crossed, a pout on his face. "Just took Jon out on my bike." The Spine said, amused expression not even hidden.  
Rabbit gave a little grunt to show he'd heard. "He loved it. He likes the bike. Likes to feel all the wind, I think."  
"Uh-huh." Rabbit mumbled.  
"S'really cool, ya know. Pretty damn good horsepower. Good for 110 miles an hour."  
"Mmm." The Spine let him wallow for a few seconds longer, knowing that Rabbit didn't go green just on the outside.  
"Ya wanna come out for a ride? Go get ice cream?" Rabbit froze and then perked up a little, jealousy dissipating in seconds.  
"Okay, The Spine!" He said cheerily, a grin on his face, giving a little embarrassed puff of steam for feeling so embarrassed. The Spine smiled indulgently, leading his brother outside.

The Spine's bike was his. He took care of it mostly himself, fixing it up regularly and ensuring it was all running smoothly. It ran perfectly, and that was mostly down to him.  
Of this, he was proud. These days, his monthly allowance often went on fuel.  
A few months later, Jon, Hatchworth and Rabbit pitched together to buy him a suit, all leather. He loved it, couldn't thank his brothers enough. The Jon had put it on one night, danced and mimicked The Spine's baritone as he tried not to trip in the too long pants.  
Everyone laughed that night.

It was easy to pretend to be human under the helmet. It was simple to wear the make-up, and it wasn't much smudged.  
Women liked the bike. And it was definitely a good conversation starter. He'd spent hours in bars excitedly discussing motorcycles, cars and so on.  
Besides, he was more believable when he drove rather than walked miles to a bar. He could get out of town without his brothers and without asking Steve to drive him.  
He loved it.

The bike was also pretty good for getting stuff without the others being able to follow. Only Rabbit knew where he was going - he'd snuck out in the early evening.  
Rabbit and him were buying Peter a clock. It was kinda expensive, but they'd been saving. It wasn't too big, but it had a cleverly made marble run that worked around the pendulum, and they knew Peter would love it.  
He was paying now, this evening, so that they could deliver the clock on Peter's birthday. He paid for it, smiling and beaming at the man behind the counter.  
It was darker now, and had rained a little. He was confident on the roads, speed fast but comfortable, well within the limit.  
He never saw the truck coming. That, it seemed, was mutual.  
He went flying. The Spine landed with too much of a strong jar. He felt something snap in his boiler, felt circuitboards get jarred out of place.  
He was glitching, spitting up oil, neck stuck in some looped twitch in the helmet. He couldn't remember his name all of a sudden, couldn't remember anything. He spat out more oil, more steam.  
The helmet was full of it, fogged up the visor's glass and he couldn't /see/, didn't know what was happening, couldn't stop his neck from glitching.  
He hurt all over. That was okay. Soon enough, he fell into darkness, systems offline. The pain stopped. The truck driver ran on, after pushing his bike down the side. The Spine was to the side of the road, down the same hill, just out of sight.  
Rabbit was terrified by the next day, when The Spine hadn't come home. He nearly screamed at Steve when said to wait a sec the next morning, jumping from foot-to-foot.  
"Rabbit, he does this all the time!" Steve muttered as they drove, Rabbit twitching in the passenger seat. "He doesn't always call if he meets a girl and-"  
"That ain't what this is!" Rabbit whined desperately. "He wasn't lookin' for girls!"  
It took them an hour to find him once Steve had parked in town, near the shop. Rabbit was well-practised in searching for bodies, by now.  
Rabbit just dropped to his knees when he found him. Steve froze and watched him. Rabbit was scared to take off the helmet off his brother, seeing the drip of oil down his neck from beneath.  
He started to sob. "No, Rabbit, it's okay, we'll bring him back online wh-"  
"His Blue Matter core is disconnected. It'll destablize afore anyone could fix all that damage." Rabbit whispered. "You ain't bringin' nothin' back." Steve swallowed.  
"Call Pete." Rabbit ordered stiffly. "Tell him we're bringin' him in. We're buryin' him next to Pappy. Tell him that too."  
Steve stared at the automaton, opening and closing his mouth, trying to think of something to say. "Go!" Rabbit growled with a hiss of steam. Steve ran back to the car for his phone.

Peter VI didn't cry, at first, even when Rabbit dug a grave and hissed insults at Jon when he tried to help. Even when they buried him, and Jon carved the headstone when before that was The Spine's job.  
He did cry, though, when the clock arrived with a handwritten note, signed with a cursive "The Spine".


End file.
